Across China on Foot eBook

work upon the public imagination with capital tact.
I saw the stone in the center of a lotus pond, over
which is the structure in which the Kwan-in sits, not
as a weight-lifting woman, but as a tender mother,
with a tiny babe in her arms, and none in the whole
of the Empire enjoys such favor for being able to
direct the birth of male children into those families
which give most money to the priests. Women desiring
sons come and implore her by throwing cash, one by
one, at the effigy, the one who hits being successful,
going away with the belief that a son will be born
to her. When the deluded females are cleared
out, the priest, divesting himself of his shoes, and
rolling up his trousers, goes into the water, scoops
up the money and uses it for his personal convenience—­sometimes
as much as thirty thousand cash.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote AT: The commercial center of Tali-fu,
the official city is 30 li further on—­E.J.D]

[Footnote AU: From Peking to Mandalay,
by R.F. Johnston, London, John Murray. I
am indebted to this racily-written work for other ideas
in this chapter.—­E.J.D.]

[Footnote AV: From inquiries I find this custom
is not general in some parts of Western China—­E.J.D.]

[Footnote AW: Temple to the Goddess of Mercy.

“Kwan-in was the third daughter
of a king, beautiful and talented, and when young
loved to meditate as a priest. Her father, mother
and sisters beseech her not to pass the ‘green
spring,’ but to marry, and the king offers
the man of her choice the throne. But no,
she must take the veil. She enters the ‘White
Sparrow Nunnery,’ and the nuns put her
to the most menial offices; the dragons open a well
for the young maidservant, and the wild beasts bring
her wood. The king sends his troops to burn
the nunnery, Kwan-in prays, rain falls, and extinguishes
the conflagration. She is brought to the palace
in chains, and the alternative of marriage or death
is placed before her. In the room above
where the court of the inquisition is held there
is music, dancing, and feasting, sounds and sights
to allure a young girl; the queen also urges her to
leave the convent, and accede to the royal father’s
wish. Kwan-in declares that she would rather
die than marry, so the fairy princess is strangled,
and a tiger takes her body into the forest. She
descends into hell, and hell becomes a paradise, with
gardens of lilies. King Yama is terrified
when he sees the prison of the lost becoming
an enchanted garden, and begs her to leave, in order
that the good and the evil may have their distinctive
rewards. One of the genii gives her the
‘peach of immortality.’ On her return
to the terrestrial regions she hears that her
father is sick, and sends him word that if he
will dispatch a messenger to the ‘Fragrant
Mountain,’ an eye and a hand will be given him
for medicine; this hand and eye are Kwan-in’s
own, and produce instant recovery.

“She is the patron
goddess of mothers, and when we remember the
value of sons, we can
understand the heartiness of worship.”—­The
Three Religions of China,
by H.G. Du Bose.